Man wounded in officer-involved shooting faces charges

Michael Kilpatrick, the 27-year-old man who was shot by a Murfreesboro police officer Sunday night after a domestic violence call, has been charged with aggravated domestic assault, aggravated kidnapping and preventing another person from calling 911.

"His bond is set at $90,000 and is being held at the Rutherford County Sheriffs Office," according to an email sent Thursday by Kyle Evans, Murfreesboro Police Department spokesman.

James O'Rourke is the officer who wounded Kilpatrick, Evans said in an earlier email. A domestic violence report released by Murfreesboro police had the reporting officer's name redacted, however, as is state law when the officer files a Department of Children's Services complaint. The reporting officer does not appear to be O'Rourke.

According to the report, police were dispatched to Regal Inn on South Church Street shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday in reference to a man threatening to kill three young children who were all in the back of a vehicle in the motel's parking lot, according to the report.

A woman at the scene, Whitney Pugh, told police that she and Kilpatrick, her boyfriend, were involved in a domestic dispute when he loaded the three children in the back of Pugh's vehicle with the intention of driving to Antioch to buy drugs, according to the report.

The argument continued and Kilpatrick punched Pugh and smashed her phone over her head, preventing her from calling police, according to the report. The officer reported that signs of assault were obvious at the scene Sunday night.

Kilpatrick told Pugh the children would be dead by the time he returned to Regal Inn from the drug buy, she told police. He left and got in the car. Three other witnesses at the motel that night said "Kilpatrick was in the car going forward and then reverse multiple times, yelling he was going to kill all the children," according to the report.

He then "peeled out of the parking lot with the three children in the back," the report stated. When the officer arrived on the scene, Pugh warned him that Kilpatrick was likely armed with a handgun because "he was a known gang member," according to the report.

While at the scene, the officer observed Kilpatrick returning to the motel. The officer was on the driver's side of the vehicle and demanded Kilpatrick exit the car, according to the report. Instead, Kilpatrick "stomped on the gas, nearly running over my feet," the unnamed officer reported.

A pursuit was initiated and led west through the parking lot, then south on the South Church Street Annex Road before going east on Shelby Street and changing directions to go west, according to the report.

The vehicle stopped and the driver's door opened after nearly striking the officer.

"I then busted out the passenger's side window with my asp," the unnamed officer stated in the report. "The vehicle then drove forward, trying to run over Officer O'Rourke. ... Shots were fired.

"My patrol unit was then wrecked and out of commission. The pursuit returned to Church Street when the vehicle struck several other vehicles," the report continued.

The pursuit ended near National Drive where Kilpatrick was arrested. The earlier news release from MPD indicated he was then transferred by helicopter to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville for treatment of a gunshot wound.

The TBI is investigating the officer-involved shooting part of the incident.